Tax Restructuring

The “Fear and Balanced Network,” aka The Fox “News” Channel, seems happiest when its personalities are able to instill fear in its audience. Among the Fear and Balanced things you should fear include, but are not limited to, Muslims; labor unions; The Phony Wars on Christmas and Halloween; Immigrants, especially the undocumented kind; creeping Socialism; creeping Sharia Law; the creeping President of the United States of ‘Merka; and Black‘Merkins in general that are neither president, nor Herman Cain. However, judging by the sheer amount of airtime devoted to it in such a short period of time—not to mention the over-the-top demagoguery—the thing Fox “News” wants its viewers to fear the most these days is the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Seeming to be leading the Fox pitchfork crowd are Eric Bolling and Peter Johnson, Jr., both of whom go farther in their condemnation of OWS than other Fox “News” readers. Therefore, it was a glorious two-fer Friday when Eric Bolling (filling in on Fox and Friends for one of the blonde Foxy Friends) hosted the Knight of Malta, Peter Johnston, Jr.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) visited Your World on November 2, 2011 to discuss his endorsement of a tax on stock transfers. Cavuto, of course, was horrified and grew more agitated as DeFazio out-argued every right-wing talking point. At one point, DeFazio’s words literally echoed off the walls of Congress as he shouted, “WE NEED JOBS!” He went on to mock the right-wing argument that taxes will impede “job creators.” “Oh, The job creators are doing a great job, aren’t they?” DeFazio rhetorically asked. Cavuto had no answer.

The only guest on Fox News Sunday today was Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry. As Chris Wallace said in his introduction, Perry’s “campaign staffers talk about trying to reboot Perry 2.0.” Well, Mission Accomplished on FoxNews.com! They called their video of the segment, “Rick Perry Reboots Presidential Campaign.”

On Thursday’s Hannity show (10/27/11), radio host Jay Thomas was part of the Great American Panel segment. Sean Hannity argued the familiar right-wing talking point that despite the deficit, it would be bad for the economy to raise taxes on businesses because they won’t spend money on hiring and investing in growth. “Businesses have more cash than they’ve ever had since (unintelligible),” Thomas began.

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana won re-election in a landslide Saturday. But the night before (10/21/11), he made a campaign stop on the Hannity show. Sean Hannity was such a cheerleader for Jindal, he might as well have been waving a “Vote for Bobby!” sign during the fawning segment that passed for an interview.